Here's another UK newspaper launching a novel writing contest. Last week, it was The Guardian with a self-published novel of the month award and now The Independent is setting up the Montegrappa Scholastic Prize for New Children’s Writing.
The Guardian newspaper is running a new monthly competition to find the best self-published novels and entries are open until April 18 for the first month's award.
Amazon has a vice-like grip on the ebook sector in the UK which has seen pricing wars result in the country having the lowest-priced ebooks in the world.
A self-published writer has taken over as the No 1 best-seller in the Amazon.com Kindle store this week, breaking the hold that Veronica Roth has had on the top three places.
What a difference two years make. In 2012, I went to the London Book Fair at Earls Court and was struck by the downbeat mood, relatively low attendance and minimal focus on independent authors and self-publishing. This week, I went to the opening day of the London Book Fair on Tech Tuesday and the place was packed and buzzing, full of new exhibitors and visitors, with indie publishing taking a very prominent role.
One of the most successful self-publishing authors has been appointed to the executive council of the Authors Guild, an organisation not renowned for its support of self-publishing.
I think Wattpad have set a tough task for themselves with their new Wattpad Prize, which is now open to submissions until the end of April.
Scribd has struck a deal with travel publisher Lonely Planet that offers users of the Scribd ebook subscription service unlimited access to hundreds of the highly regarded LP travel guides.
Another indie ebook store is shutting down, with Diesel closing at the end of this month. If you have ebooks on the store then you need to download them by March 31 as they won't be available on April 1.
Just a couple of months after buying Bookish from a consortium of leading publishers, Zola Books has struck a prestigious deal with the New York Public Library to use the book recommendation tool (that's Bookish) in its BiblioCommons online catalog.
Black is the fashionable color for Kindle ebook covers this season, with a clutch of new ebooks from Amazon Publishing landing in the top 20 all sporting covers in the slimming shade.